Hearts in Atlantis

Review by By Clint Morris

Drowning in a vat of ambition, Scott Hick's Hearts in Atlantis has its heart in the right place, but one not dangling on a long-enough string. Autumnally beautiful, but laden with more confusion than unrivalled captivation, it's an old hat story seemingly even more vintage when squeezing into an already choca-bloc basket of 'mysterious stranger and young boy bond' movies.

Based on a short story by Stephen King and an on script written by William Goldman, this limp-tear squeezer is evidently riding on the coat-tails of similarly themed gems of earlier days - The Man without a Face, The Green Mile (also based on a short by Stephen King), Finding Forrester, Good Will Hunting - but comes up short when compared to its more entertaining predecessors.

Told in flash back - for no apparent reason - an old friend's funeral stirs up memories of earlier days for grown-up Bobby Garfield (David Morse). Paying a visit to his childhood home, Bobby soon finds himself immersed in a home-movie of yesterday's events - playing exclusively in his head.

Bobby and his widowed mum Liz (Hope Davis) live in share accommodation. Their neighbour, Ted Braughtigan (Anthony Hopkins) immediately ignites young Bobby's curiosity. Through a series of wise-man tales and smallish life lessons, Bobby ends up the young pal of the much older man. At the same time, Bobby is also being paid $1 dollar a week to read the mystifying man newspaper stories on a daily basis.

In addition to informing him of the daily news, he asks Bobby to be on the lookout for outlandish men wearing dark suits and hats, and driving flashy cars. When asked what they want, Ted replies, "What they want is me, back under their control." To which Bobby endearingly replies, "Don't worry, I won't let the boogie man get you." The "boogie men" are theoretically F.B.I. agents trying to regain Ted back into the agency's secret program which uses psychics to check out whomever J. Edgar Hoover is building a file on.

Hearts in Atlantis is sadly frought with mediocrity. Even from it's promising storyline it avoids weighty plot events - hardly creating any reality for the viewer in the outcome - and instead concentrates on making the cinematography and costumes look wonderous.

Sadly, Scott Hicks deserves a lot of the blame. His direction lacks pace. It's so botchy and pot-holed, one wonders if he actually spent the entire shoot from afar, say at a local Starbucks.

What is frustrating, and probably the film's saving grace, are the notable performances. A de-Hannibalised Hopkins is good, but he has little to do here. Better is rising youngster Mika Boorem (Riding in Cars with Boys) as Bobby's childhood sweetheart, Carol. Hope Davis (Arlington Road), immersed in ageing make-up and dull clothes, convincingly plays Bobby's frustrated mother and Russian-born actor Anton Yelchin, in his seventh film in two years, is perfectly innocent and aware as the movie's central character. If there are Hearts in Atlantis, here's hoping they beat faster than this one.

3 out of 5

Hearts in Atlantis
Australian release: Commences January 31st across Australia
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis, Mika Boorem, David Morse.
Director: Scott Hick.
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